“The Temptress” was first published by James Weldon Johnson in the book Fifty Years & Other Poems in the year 1917, right before the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The book itself was a collection of 65 poems which mostly describe the way that America changed after the Emancipation of Proclamation. “The Temptress” is a poem that expresses his new found freedom to express himself and describe somebody.
Excerpt from "The Temptress"
"Old Devil, when you come with horns and tail,
With diabolic grin and crafty leer;
I say, such bogey-man devices wholly fail
To waken in my heart a single fear."
-James Weldon Johnson Read more
Analysis:
“The Temptress” shows Johnson's opinion about how women can tempt into doing things without much work. in the first stanza “ Old devil, when you come with horns and tail...”, when he first sees the “devil he doesn't have any feelings for it because it is a devil and unknown to him, and he knows he will not give in to such creature. in the second stanza "But when you where i know so well"he begins to realize that the more he begins to know what she is (a woman) he starts to "Fall beneath the magic of your spell." by the third stanza we realize that he is submitting more and more to this "devil" "I must admit I fear the tangled path I tread When that dear head is laid against my face." by the sixth stanza he has forgotten that the woman in front of him is the devil and reveals that he has given in."You tempt me with two crimson lips curved in a smile; Old Devil, I must really own, you win." he shows that the appearance of this woman has tempted him enough to give in to the devil. Bibliography: 50 Years & Other Poems.Google Book Search. 14, May 2009.<http://books.google.com/books?id=NRF7bdOtKBgC&dq=50+years+and+other+poems&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=dcR7K_r3K&sig=Ta0SNT2VjeGrLTetz0DP4VefQc&hl=en&ei=Ps8MSo_MjctgOSlcDyAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9>
Intro:
“The Temptress” was first published by James Weldon Johnson in the book Fifty Years & Other Poems in the year 1917, right before the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. The book itself was a collection of 65 poems which mostly describe the way that America changed after the Emancipation of Proclamation. “The Temptress” is a poem that expresses his new found freedom to express himself and describe somebody.Excerpt from "The Temptress"
"Old Devil, when you come with horns and tail,With diabolic grin and crafty leer;
I say, such bogey-man devices wholly fail
To waken in my heart a single fear."
-James Weldon Johnson
Read more
Analysis:
“The Temptress” shows Johnson's opinion about how women can tempt into doing things without much work. in the first stanza “ Old devil, when you come with horns and tail...”, when he first sees the “devil he doesn't have any feelings for it because it is a devil and unknown to him, and he knows he will not give in to such creature. in the second stanza "But when you where i know so well"he begins to realize that the more he begins to know what she is (a woman) he starts to "Fall beneath the magic of your spell." by the third stanza we realize that he is submitting more and more to this "devil" "I must admit I fear the tangled path I tread When that dear head is laid against my face." by the sixth stanza he has forgotten that the woman in front of him is the devil and reveals that he has given in."You tempt me with two crimson lips curved in a smile;Old Devil, I must really own, you win." he shows that the appearance of this woman has tempted him enough to give in to the devil.
Bibliography:
50 Years & Other Poems.Google Book Search. 14, May 2009.<http://books.google.com/books?id=NRF7bdOtKBgC&dq=50+years+and+other+poems&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=dcR7K_r3K&sig=Ta0SNT2VjeGrLTetz0DP4VefQc&hl=en&ei=Ps8MSo_MjctgOSlcDyAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9>
MrAfrica@AfroPoets.Net ,"The Temptress."AfroPoets Famous Writers.19, May 2009<http://www.afropoets.net/jamesjohnson3.html>
Weldon, James Johnson .Four Holograph Poems.Poetry and Fiction. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.,University ofSouth Carolina.15, May 2009.<http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit /johnson/johnson3.html>